It's not too soon to start coordinating with referral partners, planning for the increased workload that will come with ICD-10, and making sure that provisions for dual coding are in place.

With the ICD-10 transition delayed until October 1,2015, physicians have more time to assess their switchoverprograms and look for weak points. Workingwith referral partners is likely to be a shortcomingfor most physician practices, and the ICD-10 delaymeans you can fix the problem.

Coordinating with referral partners will beespecially important for specialists who get theirpatients from another resource, says David Zetter,founder of Zetter HealthCare in Mechanicsburg,Pennsylvania, and a member of the National Societyof Certified Healthcare Business Consultants. He isa certified coder and certified auditor for medicalcoding.

"Whoever is calling to make that referral or totransfer the care of that patient needs to providethe best diagnosis code," Zetter says. "The beststrategy is to determine how each person in yourpractice now touches ICD-9 codes. The person inyour office who is taking that phone call or referralneeds to understand what information they needfrom that referral partner to make sure that diagnosiscode is accurate as possible and includes all theinformation."